We spent the previous day in DC exploring a little bit. Went to the White House with Rob (well as close as you can get) and then ate at an amazing vegan restaurant called The Woodlands.
The prices were out of this world and they made us try three samples (mac and cheese and two different kale salads) - all three samples were amazing. Settled on a peanut butter shake (YUM),
fried chicken sandwich and some fries. Spent some time at the Smithsonian - museum of American History. Have to say was somewhat disappointed. I had been there before as a kid and I remembered
it being much larger and more magical. I think technology, cable and the fact the Henry Ford Museum is practically in my backyard has made me jaded. Spent the night in Manassas and went to see
Bad Grandpa. I haven't laughed at a movie so hard in such a long time. I literally couldn't breathe.

Anyway, headed out to Charlottesville, arriving around 11:30. Went to go eat at the Mellow Mushroom (in some ways glad we do not have any in Michigan or else I would weigh 800 pounds.) Walked around
downtown Charlottesville for a few, just taking in the sights and admiring the town's beauty. At that time it was about 2:00 so we went to the box office to get stickers from the merch tent. Other than people being annoying, the merch line was painless. Dbag behind me
bought 15 stickers (yeah, totally legit). I also witnessed a lot of child abuse. One guy brought his son who was probably five or six. The kid was wearing the hat and scarf --- mind you it was 68 degrees and
sunny outside. The kid was hot and the dad literally yelled at him not to touch his scarf. Pearl Jam fans are crazy. I also noticed a kid with a shirt noting that he had seen three shows in the womb. This
is when it was decided we were never going to force our kids to go to a show --- shows are for us. If the kids want to go, that's fine, they can come. But we will never force. Or whore them out.

Picked up tickets with little drama (Mike side, our 10C guaranteed seats) and also pre-paid for parking to save ourselves $5 (every little bit counts, paying for parking is such a bitch.) Waited a bit at the box
office for TJ to arrive. We then tried to find a place to eat and ended up going to this "pedestrian mall" which was like a downtown area with the streets blocked off to cars. We didn't find anything to eat there (a bit pretentious, if we
were looking for lobster, it may have worked) but we did find a crazy cat lady store with one of the most craziest cat women I have ever met. And that's not a compliment. We wound up having Panera for dinner which actually wasn't
half bad.

Got into the venue and discovered that the picture thingy wasn't properly working - again. Found our seats - solid side stage seats with a good angle and perspective.

Gotta be honest - we didn't know what to expect of this show. Always in the back of your mind, you think "podunk" shows are going to be awesome. But here's the thing, there were tons of tickets available for under $30 on StubHub and there were
lot of box office drops. The direct side stage tickets were not even sold, there were no seats behind the stage and straight back 200 level was not completely sold out. Let's just say, though, who was in the door, totally brought it to this show.

Lightning Bolt tour opener --- Pendulum into Release. The crowd was wild. During Release, Ed sang, "Oh dear Lou" - Lou still obviously on the mind. Even better after Release? In My Tree! Then it was time to
burn! Corduroy, Go AND Why Go! Wow! A little bit of Lightning Bolt with a little I Am Mine mixed in-between. Ed mentioned he wrote I Am Mine in Virginia Beach 12 years (typical Pearl Jam, obviously math is not their
strong suit as it was 13 years) ago under grim circumstances and it is so good now, years later, to be able to play for a crowd like ours. Woo hoo!

Faithfull!!! Yes! Wishlist followed and then the band played Sirens. After Sirens ended, though, Ed got the crowd to extend the "oooh oooohs" as he strummed along. You could tell he was loving this crowd and the crowd was
loving the energy from the band.

Jeremy followed which we immediately joked was a "peace offering" for Ed "supposedly" pissing off Jeff in Baltimore by not introducing him (two days of jokes about this did commence and the interwebs were all blown up with omg-Jeff-was-mad.) While I gotta admit,
Jeremy is not my fav, I am mesmerized by Jeff's sparkly bass so I could see it anytime and be happy as long as he's holding that bass.

Here's where we really start to be surprised --- Grievance! And then Glorified G! One of my favs! Yay! And I'm telling you, the crowd was practically shouting the lyrics - it was AWESOME.

The Fixer was dedicated to Rob (haha). Down was awesome - except some douches in the pit were starting something so Ed stopped the song to figure out what the drama was all about. The good news is they didn't scrap the song, they started from scratch.
The set closed with the formula of Rearviewmirror - and I couldn't believe we were at this point in the show. It went by SO quick!

So let me take a moment to interject with the encore, the annoying things happening around me. While annoying, they did not ruin my night, but are worth noting. There was a chick a row ahead of us and a couple of seats over - I've seen here at some other show (can't recall what)
but she has the most annoying head shake move that drives me nuts. Next to me, the couple was ready to part-tay. The guy saw head shaking girl take a few hits and he started asking the guys in front of me "can I hit that?" Those guys weren't even with her...so I don't think this guy was
10C, cause if he was, he would've realized that the tickets are distributed in pairs...so there's no way shakey head girl was with these two monster bump-on-a-logs in front of me. The woman next to me also apparently kept sitting down to smoke cigs. I wasn't paying attention but I did keep noticing
the stank. Charlie came by at some point and gave me a bottle of water (what an awesome guy) shouting, "hey prego!" The woman next to me turns to me and is like, "Oh my gosh, I didn't know you were pregnant! I have had three babies! I won't smoke anymore!" and then rubs my tummy. Really? My own
personal hell for five seconds.

Ed came back alone at encore and playing a wonderful rendition of The End. Now, maybe on paper, the "slow" encore starter may seem like a downer or it may seem long --- but it was really incredible. Thumbing My Way sounded great and Sleight of Hand was a nice surprise. Ed asked to
switch Footsteps and Future Days. Prior to Footsteps, it was more "peace offering" (haha) with Ed totally kissing some Stone and Jeff ass. In fact, I can't remember...was it Footsteps? The crowd started a Jeff chant - the whole "drama" from Baltimore was so comical and everyone
was eating it up. I loved it. Future Days was dedicated to some surfer who was apparently at the show who was celebrating 30 years with his wife.

Mother came next and again, was unexpected! Crowd LOVED it. Given To Fly brought us into Whipping - a botched Whipping Towards the end, Ed fucked up the lyrics and then the band just dropped the ball. Hey, I'll take it. The best came next (was there a "best"? there were so many "bests" at this show) - Big
Wave (lots of surfers are from Virginia.) Did not, in a million years, think Sad would follow Big Wave and then the set closed with Porch. Now let me gripe about the lights - I am so sick of the lights and I'm sick of the schtick of Ed hanging off the light. So dumb. Let's get rid of the lights. Please.

How awesome was the second encore opening with Breath? Pretty freaking incredible. But then to get State of Love and Trust right after? My goodness!!!

Alive was also incredible --- with McCready coming off stage during his solo and walking through the pit. Yes. Through the back of the pit. Playing to a few fans. People left him alone, it was SO awesome. Towards the end Ed had no idea where Mike was --- he noticed he wasn't on the stage. Was kind of a funny moment.

Before Baba, I saw Ed talking to Pete. Wondered what was up his sleeve for this night...
Turns out it was the two kids on the rail that Ed had pointed out earlier in the show (one of the kids that I saw earlier in the merch line). Now, Ed was trying to get the 12 year old drunk during the show (strange). But he brought them on stage and the band (mostly Jeff) admired their shirts. At least Ed didn't have them stay on stage
and rock out during Baba --- they got to watch from the side.

Another small mention...not sure where it occurred in the encores, but Ed pointed out some people in the pit that had been holding pictures of Lou Reed (I saw this from a distance but quite honestly could not make out who it was) - Jeff started strumming Take A Walk On the Wild Side.

Now was another amazing part...the fact the show closed with Little Wing!!!!! Who would have thought?!?!?! The crowd was nuts and the band was SO happy! I love when the unexpected happens at these shows. And I love that this show was SO SO SO SO SO much fun!!!